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90 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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My Tech Workers Have Unionized, 2026.10.05
14 oktober 2026 · 54 min
Across the tech industry, workers are fed up with endless layoff cycles, overwork, and "AI" tools being forced into their jobs. And their bosses hate to hear it! Emily and Alex are joined by JS Tan and Clarissa Redwine, the authors of Against Tech Oligarchy, to discuss the ways workplace organizing is evolving to meet this moment. Lees meer
JS Tan is getting his PhD at MIT and formerly worked in tech, where he spent years organizing across the industry. Clarissa Redwine helped organize the Kickstarter union, and cofounded and runs the annual tech organizing conference Circuit Breakers. Their book, Against Tech Oligarchy: Worker Resistance in the World’s Most Powerful Industry, is available now!
References:
Amazon finds cases of AI causing runaway spending on tech projects
Mark Zuckerberg had a bold plan to replace Meta staff with AI. Here’s how it imploded.
Fresh AI Hell:
ICE x Boston Dynamics
"OpenAI and Microsoft Admits LLMs Are Destroying the Web and Built on Theft"
Effective Altruists mad about someone "torturing LLMs"
Former Seattle City Council president launches centrist slop website
Palate cleanser: "New AI Literacy Program Awards Students Free Pizza If They Don’t Know How to Read Books Anymore"
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Big Tech Colon-AI-lism, 2026.09.15
30 september 2026 · 55 min
This week, Alex and Emily are joined by Keoni Mahelona of Te Hiku Media to discuss Indigenous language technology. They discuss problems that arise when Big Tech tries to bring its "solutions" into this space, and best practices for research and development that center the expertise, cultural norms and goals of Indigenous communities. Lees meer
Keoni Mahelona is the CTO of Te Hiku Media and a Native Hawaiian from the island of Kaua'i. He's a driving force behind the development of sovereign digital technologies that aim to protect and promote Indigenous languages, knowledge, culture, and now democracy.
References:
Microsoft/IDB paper: "The Performance of Artificial Intelligence in the Use of Indigenous American Languages"
Also referenced:
Kaitiakitanga License
Joanna Radin paper on Indigenous data collection
Fresh AI Hell:
"Apple Watch's new always-on don't-call-it-transcription feature"
Nevada County prosecutors use "AI" and insert errors into criminal cases
UW Grand Rounds: "If AI Can Write the Note, Who Does the Thinking?"
The "Pro-Human Assembly"
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Manifesting the End of Tech Bro Manifestos, 2026.09.08
17 september 2026 · 57 min
Last month, Sam Altman proclaimed that we're already in "the Singularity." Not to be outdone, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have both recently come out with lengthy blog posts about "superhuman AI." Emily and Alex brave some truly terrible writing to unearth the core motivations at the heart of these screeds. Lees meer
References:
Gates: "The turbulent AI era is here. The choices we make now are critical."
Also referenced: "Impulse Purchase" by OK Go
Zuckerberg: "The Future is for Everyone"
Fresh AI Hell:
Tristan Buckmaster's statement on OpenAI trying to take credit for his work
Also referenced: Emily's debate with Sébastien Bubeck
Nature article worrying about impact of LLMs on language change for all the wrong reasons
Palate cleanser: NYC bans "AI" in schools
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Working 9 to Hype, 2026.08.10
2 september 2026 · 54 min
In the past year, tech companies have laid off thousands of employees. But when CEOs blame "AI innovation," they're redirecting attention from something much more predictable: job discrimination and gig-ification. Emily and Alex examine some narratives of AI-streamlined workplaces — and why they don't match up with reality. Lees meer
References:
Block press release: "From Hierarchy to Intelligence"
"Lawsuit claims Meta's layoff decisions were made by AI, not humans"
Fresh AI Hell:
"OpenAI’s latest math breakthroughs commit research misconduct, experts say"
Also referenced: Leiden Declaration
"AI Assisted Autism Screening"
Weird comparison of "AI" emissions to other data center activity
Paved paradise and put up a data center
"What if you just talked to your children"
Palate cleanser: US judge holds DOGE accountable for output they took from ChatGPT
Palate cleanser: Data center opposition momentum
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Rumors of a Singularity Have Been Grossly Exaggerated, 2026.08.03
19 augustus 2026 · 55 min
In the wake of OpenAI's announcement that its products caused a "cyber incident," Sam Altman is now claiming that we're already in the Singularity. And some media outlets are only too happy to help him advance that narrative! Alex and Emily tear up the AI boosters' latest claims of mathy maths combusting into consciousness. Lees meer
References:
Business Insider: "Sam Altman says we are in the singularity: 'This is the moment'"
Also referenced: Altman on the Relentless podcast
Wall Street Journal: "How the Futuristic Hack by Rogue OpenAI Models Unfolded"
Also referenced: OpenAI and Anthropic press releases
MacAskill op ed in the Guardian: "Could AI be conscious?"
Also referenced: Emily's Bluesky thread
Fresh AI Hell:
Google kills AlphaFold
"Former executive accuses Mayo of cutting corners on AI research"
Amazon wants to use Twitch streams to train gen AI
"Meta used AI to target workers with medical conditions for layoffs, lawsuit claims"
Meta contaminates water in Cheyenne
"Humanoid robot teaching assistant"
AI companies buying and destroying antique books
Palate cleanser: Mathematicians clap back
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Who's Responsible for "Responsible AI"?, 2026.07.06
4 augustus 2026 · 59 min
Lately, a new framework has been creeping into AI boosterism: "harm reduction," or "responsible use." Education technology scholar dr. sava saheli singh joins Alex and Emily to unpack narratives around automation inevitability in the classroom. Spoiler alert: they're not actually "reducing harm" to students at all! Lees meer
An interdisciplinary scholar and filmmaker, sava is currently working on a research project examining secondary school teachers’ experiences of genAI use, and making a film about the future of AI in education. Her speculative short film series on the harms of surveillance technology is available at screeningsurveillance.com.
References:
"Harm Reduction: A Strategy to Mitigate the Risks of AI"
Also referenced: MAIHT3k newsletter, "How to talk about 'AI' without adding to the anthropomorphization"
UNESCO "AI competency framework for students"
Fresh AI Hell:
Hallucination rebranded as "critical confabulation"
"Pennsylvania Board of Medicine Alleges Unlawful Practice of Medicine by an AI Chatbot"
"Google's smart home AI will be able to use clothing to identify people"
"Medicare AI program made them suffer in pain. Now they want answers"
"Why do these Castro gay bars have TSA-style face scanners?"
"County With 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'"
Palate cleanser: "Florida AG sues OpenAI, seeks to hold CEO Altman personally liable"
Palate cleanser: "Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school"
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
State of Emergency, 2026.06.29
23 juli 2026 · 56 min
AI boosters want to hand off emergency services to the bullshit generators. And horrifyingly, some medical professionals want to help them! Join Emily and Alex for a deep dive on the latest automated horrors threatening our collective health and safety. Lees meer
References:
"The role of large language models in emergency care: a comprehensive benchmarking study"
"Seattle uses AI to help triage, divert 911 medical calls"
Also referenced: MAIHT3k newsletter on Seattle's 911 automation
"FDA approves early warning system for sepsis"
Also referenced: Underlying research paper on this system
Fresh AI Hell:
Family business stops shipping due to automated delivery nonsense
Google CEO Sundar Pichai says people aren't "evolved" enough to understand AI
"California judges are testing a new AI clerk, and you won't know if it’s looking at your case"
Nonconsensual "AI monitors" for memory care
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says the goal is Star Trek computer and/or R2D2
"A little surveillance break, as a treat"
"Virtual child" chatbot company
Chaser: Festus, MO residents vote out council members who approved data center
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
When the Bubble Bursts (with Matt Scherer), 2026.06.01
7 juli 2026 · 53 min
What should we do when the "AI" bubble pops? Emily and Alex are joined by researcher Matt Scherer, who recently published a report called "No Bailout for Big Tech Billionaires: Policies for when the AI bubble bursts." They unpack what the boosters are saying about their finances, and how we can all push back against arguments for a government bailout. Lees meer
Matt Scherer is a fellow at the anti-monopoly think tank Open Markets Institute. He previously led the workers' rights project at the Center for Democracy & Technology.
References:
Forbes: "AI Can Change The World And Still Be A Bubble"
Also referenced: Is AI Profitable Yet?
CNBC: "Altman says some investors will be left 'very burnt'"
CNBC: "Bezos brushes off concerns of an AI bubble: 'You shouldn’t worry about it'
Fresh AI Hell:
Empty Waymos create self-driving traffic jam
"AA digital sponsor"
Stanford researchers claim "AI agents...embrace Marxist ideologies"
"Chatbots at the drive-thru"
YouGov polling on automated juries
Chaser: Erin Brockovich is on the case!
AI Startup Says It Will Pay People $2,000 a Month to Masturbate
Chaser: You used which brush!?
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Beware the 20x Engineer, 2026.05.11
24 juni 2026 · 53 min
"Sure, LLMs are bad at some things, but you can't deny that they're useful for programming!" Sound familiar? In this week's episode, Emily and Alex break down the key myths around AI-boosted productivity in tech. Plus, Alex previews her work with DAIR's newly launched Luddite Lab, where workers are organizing against automation. Lees meer
References:
Yale Budget Lab report: "What Might AI Adoption Mean for the Fiscal and Economic Outlook?"
Also referenced: Karger et al. paper funded by Open Philanthropy
Garry Tan’s gstack
"Karpathy-Inspired Claude Code Guidelines"
Previous MAIHT3k episodes referenced:
Episode 60: Vibe Coding: Four Security Nightmares in a Trenchcoat (with Susanna Cox)
Episode 53: Linguists Versus 'AI' Speech Analysis (with Nicole Holliday)
Fresh AI Hell:
Emotional surveillance at work
DARPA call for proposals on "Decentralized Artificial Intelligence"
CircleCI claims "the promised AI productivity boom isn’t all hype"
Andreessen is at it again
"A data center drained 30M gallons of water unnoticed"
Retraction of pro-edtech paper
Chaser: "Minnesota passes the nation’s first ban on ‘nudification’ apps"
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Bernie Goes Down the X-Risk Rabbithole (with Dr. Nathalie Maréchal), 2026.05.04
9 juni 2026 · 1 uur 4 min
Senator Bernie Sanders recently hosted a panel on "The Existential Threat of AI," featuring Future of Life Institute co-founder Max Tegmark and other x-riskers. Dr. Nathalie Maréchal joins Emily and Alex to unpack this latest stop on Bernie's descent into doomerism. We return to the MST3k model with a rare video artifact! Lees meer
Nathalie Maréchal is a writer, researcher and advocate fighting for democracy and human rights in the age of technofascism. Her latest article, "Tech Policy Is on the Front Line of Fascism vs. Democracy. Pick a Side," is available in Tech Policy Press. She is currently the managing policy director at Northeastern University’s Institute for Information, the Internet, and Democracy.
References:
"LIVE: The Existential Threat of AI and the Need for International Cooperation"
Fresh AI Hell:
"The AI Pledge for Humanity" petition
Richard Dawkins force-femmes a chatbot
Anthropic claims LLMs have "emotion concepts"
Palantir wants us all to stop being mean to data centers
"Optimizing LLM costs by inventing employees again"
Luxury surveillance cat
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
LIVE: Anthropic Imagines a Very Special Boy, 2026.04.30
26 mei 2026 · 1 uur 1 min
Last month, we recorded our very first in-person podcast, live from Brooklyn! Alex and Emily debunk an especially soulless hype artifact about Anthropic's absurd claims of "moral education" for chatbots. Tune in to hear our rendition of "There Was A Society That Swallowed AI," plus other fun surprises! Lees meer
References:
"Claude has an 80-page 'soul document'"
Fresh AI Hell:
NYC schools "Guidance on Artificial Intelligence"
"Therapy App Sessions Exposed in Court"
Meta to track "employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training data"
News org uses real journalist names on synthetic text
"New Gas-Powered Data Centers Could Emit More Greenhouse Gases Than Entire Nations"
"The first agentic cannabis device"
TikTok auto–opts in users for "AI" remixes
Oberlin students push back on "Year of AI Exploration"
"This is just to say / I have turned off / the AI features"
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Hotter Than (AI) Hell, 2026.04.20
13 mei 2026 · 56 min
The weather’s getting warmer, so what better time to take a trip to the hottest place in the universe — Fresh AI Hell! Emily and Alex take a spin through more than 30 hype artifacts, with topics including medicine, data centers, and fake people. Lees meer
Fresh AI Hell regions visited:
AI bubble + data centers
Fake people
Medicine
This is your brain on ChatGPT
Policy + privacy
See the show notes on Peertube for a full list of artifacts referenced.
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
There's No Ghost in the Machine (with Carmen Maria Machado), 2026.04.13
28 april 2026 · 54 min
Why are some writers and publishers so excited to automate their work? Author Carmen Maria Machado joins Alex and Emily to unpack what writers are missing when they hand off their work to chatbots, and the underlying issues this reveals in the publishing industry. Plus, we resolve to keep fan fiction a human endeavor! Lees meer
Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. Her essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Granta, Vogue, This American Life, The Believer, Guernica, and elsewhere.
Find tickets to our April 30th live show here!
References:
- "I wrote a novel using AI. Writers must accept artificial intelligence."
- AFT shares tips for "Harnessing the Best of AI"Fresh AI Hell:
- "With Teens Comfortable Confiding in AI, Should Schools Embrace It for Mental Health Care?"
- Longread on the use of automation by the British government
- "OpenAI Backs Bill That Would Limit Liability for AI-Enabled Mass Deaths or Financial Disasters"
- UN brief on "AI Deception"
- Reader's Digest cover on "Making Friends with AI"
- The only good "AI acceptance" policyCheck out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Uber for Military Surveillance (with Niamh McIntyre), 2026.03.30
16 april 2026 · 54 min
The people who make automated translation possible are often low-paid gig workers. Usually, they don't even know who they're really working for — and it might be the US military. Reporter Niamh McIntyre joins Alex and Emily to dissect how one data labeling company presents its work, based her investigation into the experiences of East African employees. Lees meer
Niamh McIntyre is a senior reporter at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) in London, covering AI, labor, and surveillance tech. She was 2023 AI Accountability Fellow at the Pulitzer Center, and prior to joining TBIJ, spent four years as a data journalist at The Guardian.
Find tickets to our April 30th live show here!
References:
Appen blog post on "Why AI Must be Ethical and Responsible"
Also referenced:
"Gig workers in Africa have been helping the US military. They had no idea"
DAIR's Data Workers' Inquiry
Fresh AI Hell:
Marc Andreessen says "there is no inner self"
Rest of World call for stories on labor and tech
Detrans.AI wants you to talk to fake detransitioners
Melania proposes catwalking robot as replacement for teachers
Microsoft sidelines Mustafa Suleyman
Andrej Karpathy cooked by LLM usage
"Sorry AI, you can't call yourself a nurse"
Volunteer fire department rejects $250,000 Google donation
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Data Centers Go Nuclear (with Maia Woluchem and Dr. Livia Garofalo), 2026.03.09
31 maart 2026 · 57 min
We knew that the energy demands of data centers were preventing dirty energy sources from being sunsetted. Now hyperscalers are reaching even further, resurrecting Pennsylvania's infamous Three Mile Island. Emily and Alex are joined by Maia Woluchem and Dr. Livia Garofalo, who have researched the impacts of data center construction across PA. Lees meer
Maia Woluchem and Livia Garofalo are with the Trustworthy Infrastructures program at Data & Society. Their latest article, "Pennsylvania is perfect," is part of the New Internationalist's AI–themed issue.
References:
Three Mile Island press release
Sen. McCormick on AI investments in PA
McCormick's wife Meta president
Fresh AI Hell:
Amazon data center targeted by Iran
"AI-powered bombing quicker than 'speed of thought'"
Meta's AI glasses use human reviewers (See also: original Swedish reporting)
Bernie posts video with Yudkowsky
Grammarly offers fake advice as if from real writers
Google data center water estimates
"AI Doesn't Reduce Work—It Intensifies It"
High schooler questions surveillance
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Data Centers in Space!? (with Dr. Adam Becker), 2026.03.02
17 maart 2026 · 54 min
Data centers are overburdening the planet, so tech billionaires have a new scheme — put 'em in space! Astrophysicist Dr. Adam Becker joins Alex and Emily to launch this plan into the sun. We unpack all the reasons that this hilariously terrible idea will never be viable outside of sci-fi-villain fantasies. Lees meer
Dr. Adam Becker is the author of More Everything Forever, a book about the terrible plans that tech billionaires have for the future and why they don’t work. Keep an eye out for his new podcast, Dreaming Against the Machine, which is launching soon.
References:
SpaceX press release on "space-based AI"
"How data centres in space sustainably enable the AI revolution"
Also referenced:
Nvidia blog post on data centers in space
Starcloud white paper
Fresh AI Hell:
Judge rules chatbots can't offer attorney-client privilege
"RFK Jr's Nutrition Chatbot Recommends Best Foods to Insert Into Your Rectum"
AI company seeks writer who doesn't use LLMs
Altman likens AI energy use to human nutritional needs
SXSW promoting panel with "AI speaker"
The agent-erati just want servants
News editor mad that journalism students don't want to use AI
Simple rules for fighting fascist tech
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
How the War Department Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI (with Naomi Klein), 2026.02.09
26 februari 2026 · 52 min
AI boosters and the US military are engaged in a lethal love affair. Award-winning journalist Naomi Klein joins Emily and Alex to discuss how glitchy technology supports global imperialism — and vice versa. Plus, we explore which Dr. Strangelove characters are currently running the US war machine. Lees meer
Naomi Klein is a columnist for The Guardian and the international bestselling author of nine books published in over 35 languages. Her new book, End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World, written with Astra Taylor, will be published in September 2026.
References:
War Department press release on GenAI.mil
Old-school racism from Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey
"How artificial intelligence is reshaping the future of war"
Previous episodes referenced:
Episode 61: Winning the Race to Hell (with Sarah Myers West and Kate Brennan)
Episode 50: Petro-Masculinity Versus the Planet (with Tamara Kneese)
Fresh AI Hell:
"Cops Forced to Explain Why AI Generated Police Report Claimed Officer Transformed Into Frog"
"Amazon outbids WA utility for one of nation's largest solar projects"
"AI data centers are forcing dirty 'peaker' power plants back into service"
"Mamdani Targets 'Unusable' AI Chatbot for Termination"
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
A Bad Case of Hype-itis, 2026.02.02
12 februari 2026 · 56 min
Move over Dr. Google, Dr. ChatGPT is here, and it's even worse as a medical intervention! Alex and Emily scrub in to slice up some harmful new nonsense in the world of "AI" for medicine. What's the cure for an expensive and inaccessible health care system? One thing's for sure — it's not AI hype. Lees meer
References:
"Stop Worrying, and Let A.I. Help Save Your Life"
"Introducing ChatGPT Health"
Also referenced:
"No, I don't want an AI scribe to write my pulmonologist’s note"
"The Danger of Intimate Algorithms"
MAIHT3k Episode 62: The Robo-Therapist Will See You Now (with Maggie Harrison Dupré)
Fresh AI Hell:
Waymo files vague NHTSA report on crash that killed KitKat (See also: NHTSA Standing General Order on Crash Reporting)
"Medical Schools Use AI Patients to Help With Clinical Training"
"What If Your Coffee Mug Knew Your Next Move? AI Researchers Made It Happen"
"Monkeys are on the loose in St. Louis and AI is complicating efforts to capture them"
Using LLMs to "infer race, ethnicity"
Tech CEOs hate ridicule as praxis!
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Hell All the Way Down, 2022–2025
30 januari 2026 · 41 min
This is a special episode, and it’s not like our usual livestream recordings. Instead, our producer Ozzy dug through the Fresh AI Hell archives to create a supercut of Alex's improvised transitions. She's made up dozens of skits and songs about the demons of AI Hell, based on weekly prompts from Emily and listeners. Finally, hear all the lore together in one place! Lees meer
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Wrapping Up a Hellish 2025, 2025.12.15
13 januari 2026 · 58 min
For our last recording of 2025, Emily and Alex take on a TIME article naming the "architects of AI" as their person of the year. We also look back at the year in AI nonsense, and share findings from our Fresh AI Hell Wrapped. Happy Hype-y New Year! Lees meer
References:
"The Architects of AI Are TIME's 2025 Person of the Year"
Stanford AI Index Report
Also referenced:
Original "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper" photo
"The Number of People Using AI at Work Is Suddenly Falling"
Fresh AI Hell:
Fresh AI Hell, Wrapped
Adobe for Education outputs sexualized images
"'Low Tech ChatGPT' on physical paper"
"Springer Nature retracts, removes nearly 40 publications that trained neural networks on 'bonkers' dataset"
Hologram lecturers and robot sandwich-makers
"'ChatGPT for Doctors' Startup Doubles Valuation to $12 Billion as Revenue Surges"
No more ideas. Need AIdeas!
"For the First Time, AI Analyzes Language as Well as a Human Expert"
"Woman Hailed as Hero for Smashing Man’s Meta Smart Glasses on Subway"
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Defining AGI: Oops! All Eugenics, 2025.12.08
30 december 2025 · 55 min
There's a new definition of artificial general intelligence in town, and unsurprisingly... it's bad! Alex and Emily rip up the tissue-paper-thin premises behind this latest attempt to define "intelligence." Plus, we discover that AI hypers love using logos that look like buttholes. Lees meer
References:
"A Definition of AGI" landing page and paper-shaped object
Fresh AI Hell:
"What If Sea Monkeys Constantly, Sometimes Dangerously, Bullshitted People"
Doctronic, the "AI doctor"
NIST reports companies cheat on "AI" evaluations
"Microsoft Lowers Sales Staff's Growth Targets For Newer AI Software"
"PEN Guild wins landmark arbitration on AI protections"
"AI" assistant pop-up whack-a-mole
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
This is What Algo-cracy Looks Like, 2025.12.01
16 december 2025 · 59 min
Tech leaders are pushing the idea that automation can strengthen democracy — but as usual, their bold suggestions are based on castles made of sand. Alex and Emily tear down some flimsy arguments for AI governance, exposing their incorrect assumptions about the democratic process. Lees meer
References:
"This Is No Way to Rule a Country"
"Four ways AI is being used to strengthen democracies worldwide"
Also referenced:
Collective Intelligence Project surveys
Interview with CalMatters CEO
Fresh AI Hell:
Amazon introduces AI translation for Kindle authors
Nature op ed recommends AI versions of Einstein, Bohr, and Feynman
An AI Podcasting Machine Is Churning Out 3,000 Episodes a Week
AI dating café to open in New York
Recipe slop flooding social media
AI slop about Autism published in Nature
Upwork ad for fixing LLM editorial
"Hundreds of Chicago residents sign petition to pause robot delivery pilot program over safety concerns"
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
You Talked to Workers for This Labor Research... Right? (with Sophie Song), 2025.11.17
2 december 2025 · 53 min
Last month, Senate Democrats warned that "Automation Could Destroy Nearly 100 Million U.S Jobs in a Decade." Ironically, they used ChatGPT to come to that conclusion. DAIR Research Associate Sophie Song joins us to unpack the issues when self-professed worker advocates use chatbots for "research." Lees meer
Sophie Song is a researcher, organizer, and advocate working at the intersection of tech and social justice. They’re a research associate at DAIR, where they're working with Alex on building the Luddite Lab Resource Hub.
References:
Senate report: AI and Automation Could Destroy Nearly 100 Million U.S Jobs in a Decade
Senator Sanders' AI Report Ignores the Data on AI and Inequality
Also referenced:
MAIHT3k Episode 25: An LLM Says LLMs Can Do Your Job
Humlum paper: Large Language Models, Small Labor Market Effects
Emily's blog post: Scholarship should be open, inclusive and slow
Fresh AI Hell:
Tech companies compelling vibe coding
arXiv is overwhelmed by LLM slop
'Godfather of AI' says tech giants can't profit from their astronomical investments unless human labor is replaced
If you want to satiate AI’s hunger for power, Google suggests going to space
AI pioneers claim human-level general intelligence is already here
Gen AI campaign against ranked choice voting
Chaser: Workplace AI Implementation Bingo
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Drag It All To Hell, 2025.10.27
18 november 2025 · 57 min
It's been six months since our last all-Hell episode! In honor of Halloween season, we take a long journey into the very scary Fresh AI Hell mines. Topics include terrifying uses of AI in education, scientific research, and politics — plus, some delicious palate cleansers along the way. Lees meer
AI bubble: bigger than dot-com bust?
No one wants to pay for ChatGPT
Meta lays off 600 from AI unit
AI data centers: an even bigger disaster than we thought
Public universities anticipate data center-driven power outages
Chaser: Deloitte has to pay back Albanese government after using AI in report
"AI" schools are "dead classrooms"
Fake sources in "ethical AI" education report
Parents letting kids play with AI
Startup sells 'synthetic influencers'
AI-powered textbooks fail to make the grade
Chaser: "High-reliability" AI slop
Nature offers "AI-powered research assistant"
AI bots wrote all papers at this conference
"AI" reviewing at AAAI
AI medical tools downplay symptoms in women and POC
Therapists are secretly using ChatGPT
Chaser: Microsoft blocks Israel's use of its technology
German initiative uses "AI" for voter education
Police gunshot detection mics will listen for human voices
SF's AI chatbot for RV dwellers
Cuomo campaign posts racist AI slop
DHS Ordered OpenAI To Share User Data
Chaser: LA County moves to limit license plate tracking
A new form of eugenics
"AI Superintelligence" prohibition letter
Emad Mostaque's LLM blurbs
Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery
Chaser: The hot new trend in marketing: hating on AI
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleas… -
Crunching the Numbers (with Decca Muldowney), 2025.10.20
30 oktober 2025 · 56 min
So-called AI tools are increasingly infiltrating newsrooms, particularly when it comes to data analysis. DAIR writer-in-residence Decca Muldowney joins us to discuss the need for journalists to distinguish between "AI" and reliable, verifiable research methods. Lees meer
Decca Muldowney is a journalist and writer who was our fact checker for The AI Con. She's also a writer-in-residence and web editor at the Distributed AI Research Institute.
References:
An early AI pioneer shares how the "vibe coding" revolution could reshape data journalism
America's top companies keep talking about AI — but can't explain the upsides
Analysis: 96.2% of Climate News Stories Don't Cover Animal Agriculture as a Pollution Source
Fresh AI Hell:
Teen Sues Maker of Fake-Nude Software
ChatGPT's Hail Mary: Chatbots You Can Fuck
GitLaw announces "Vibe Lawyering"
Salesforce Offers Its Services to Boost Trump’s Immigration Force
Towns are saying no to AI data centers. One got sued over it.
Rent a Cyber Friend will pay you to talk to strangers online
The Wire's David Simon is over it
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Building Worlds Through Better Reading (with Reo Eveleth), 2025.09.29
14 oktober 2025 · 57 min
Powerful AI boosters claim to love science fiction novels, but why do they always seem to take the wrong lessons from them? Reporter and writer Reo Eveleth joins us to discuss the ways tech leaders misuse storytelling, and how we can avoid their visions to imagine better futures. Lees meer
Reo Eveleth is a reporter, writer, and co-founder of COYOTE Media Collective. They created the hit independent show Flash Forward, which they also turned into a book of the same name. Reo’s work has been nominated for a Peabody, an Emmy, and an Eisner Award.
References:
Tech Billionaires Need to Stop Trying to Make the Science Fiction They Grew Up on Real
How New Science Fiction Could Help Us Improve AI
Also Referenced:
Statement from the listed authors of Stochastic Parrots on the “AI pause” letter
Fresh AI Hell:
Stop Worrying About AI’s Return on Investment
The most radical act of feminism? Using AI
Leader of Albania Pelted With Trash for Appointing AI-Powered Minister to Cabinet
The Human Cost of Every ChatGPT Query: Inside the Cobalt Mines That Power AI
Altman on "AGI" and quantum gravity
OK Go - Impulse Purchase
Correction: We misstated Lee Ostertag's name during the livestream for this episode. We apologize for the error!
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Three Years of Ridicule as Praxis, 2025.09.19
1 oktober 2025 · 56 min
It's Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000's third birthday! To celebrate, Emily and Alex respond to listener questions about the show, and reflect on the past and future of AI hype. Topics range from how to talk to your kids about LLMs, to what the MAIHT3k birthday cake looks like. Lees meer
Artifacts referenced:
AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark
Data and its (dis)contents
Stochastic Parrots Day
Dr. Casey Fiesler on TikTok
Dr. Nicole Holliday on TikTok
Alex and Emily’s media appearances about The AI Con
Emily and Alex on The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan
Emily’s interview with Dr. Carl Rhodes
Stinking Rich: The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire
October 21st event for The AI Con
FAccT AI Workers’ Inquiry Panel
Emily’s presentation at UNESCO Digital Learning Week — Paper version on pp.41-45 here
A Teen Was Suicidal. ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In.
Fresh AI Hell:
Meet the Robot Using AI to Ink Your Next Tattoo
Medicare Will Start Paying AI Companies a Share of Any Claims They Automatically Reject
Taco Bell AI drive-through
Can AI doulas improve maternal health?
Countries are struggling to meet the rising energy demands of data centers
Bluesky post about Business Insider
OpenAI has reportedly misjudged its cash burn by $80 billion
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
The Robo-Therapist Will See You Now (with Maggie Harrison Dupré), 2025.08.18
11 september 2025 · 55 min
Talking to chatbots can have serious mental health consequences — fueling delusions and leading users away from consensus reality. Futurism writer Maggie Harrison Dupré joins us to unpack the hype around AI therapists, based on her groundbreaking reporting on "AI psychosis." Lees meer
Maggie Harrison Dupré is an award-winning tech journalist at Futurism who’s reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping media, information, humans, and our real and digital lives.
References:
How AI Is Expanding The Mental Health Market
He Had Dangerous Delusions. ChatGPT Admitted It Made Them Worse.
OpenAI: What we're optimizing ChatGPT for
Also referenced:
Gov Pritzker Signs Legislation Prohibiting AI Therapy in Illinois
People Are Becoming Obsessed with ChatGPT and Spiraling Into Severe Delusions
Stanford: New study warns of risks in AI mental health tools
Fresh AI Hell:
Bluesky post about DEI by chatbot
How AI is being used by police departments to help draft reports
Politico's recent AI experiments shouldn’t be subject to newsroom editorial standards, its editors testify
UK Asks People to Delete Emails In Order to Save Water During Drought
Sam Altman says 'yes,' AI is in a bubble
Google's AI pointed him to a customer service number. It was a scam.
Mastodon post about Dieter Roth's Literaturwürste
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Winning the Race to Hell (with Sarah Myers West and Kate Brennan), 2025.08.04
26 augustus 2025 · 58 min
Trump’s “AI Action Plan” is his latest attempt to turn AI hype into official national policy. Kate Brennan and Sarah Myers West, of the AI Now Institute, join us to dig through this pile of deregulatory gifts to Big Tech. Lees meer
Dr. Sarah Myers West is co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, and a former senior advisor on AI for the FTC.
Dr. Kate Brennan is associate director of the AI Now Institute, where she spearheads their policy work, informed by a doctorate in law and years of experience in the tech industry.
References:
Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan
Also referenced:
People’s AI Action Plan
Fresh AI Hell:
Medical Pros Risk Malpractice Suits by Avoiding AI Innovation
Google search’s next cash cow
AI Is Coming for the Consultants. Inside McKinsey, ‘This Is Existential.’
The rise of AI tools that write about you when you die
Amazon’s Alexa Fund Invests in ‘Netflix of AI’ Start-Up Fable, Which Launches Showrunner: A Tool for User-Directed TV Shows
In federal lawsuit, students allege Lawrence school district’s AI surveillance tool violates their rights
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Vibe Coding: Four Security Nightmares in a Trenchcoat (with Susanna Cox), 2025.07.21
13 augustus 2025 · 59 min
After many months of making fun of the term "vibe coding," Emily and Alex tackle the LLMs-as-coders fad head-on, with help from security researcher Susanna Cox. From one person's screed that proclaims everyone not on the vibe-coding bandwagon to be crazy, to the grandiose claim that LLMs could be the "opposable thumb" of the entire world of computing. It's big yikes, all around. Lees meer
Susanna Cox is a consulting AI security researcher and a member of the core author team at OWASP AI Exchange.
References:
My AI Skeptic Friends Are All Nuts
LLMs: the opposable thumb of computing
A disastrous day in the life of a vibe coder
Also referenced:
Signal president Meredith Whittaker on the fundamental security problem with agentic AI
The "S" in MCP stands for security
Our Opinions Are Correct: The Turing Test is Bullshit
AI Hell:
Sam Altman: The (gentle) singularity is already here
What do the boosters think reading is, anyway?
Meta's climate model made up fake CO2 removal ideas
Ongoing lawsuit means all your ChatGPT conversations will be saved
"Dance like you're part of the training set"
Some Guy tries to mansplain Signal to…Signal's president
WSJ headline claims ChatGPT "self-reflection", gets dunked
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Et Tu, American Federation of Teachers? (with Charles Logan), 2025.07.14
30 juli 2025 · 1 uur 1 min
The chatbot boosters are looking for educators to play brand ambassador for more intrusion of so-called "AI" into the classroom. From the American Federation of Teachers' new partnership with OpenAI and Microsoft for a "national academy for AI instruction" to yet more articles extolling the alleged time-saving and future-proofing virtues of LLM-powered ed tech, the hype can feel relentless. Charles Logan joins Alex and Emily for a critical look at the latest propaganda for "AI" in the classroom. Lees meer
Charles Logan is a former English teacher and current PhD candidate in Learning Sciences at Northwestern University.
References:
Welcome to Campus. Here’s Your ChatGPT.
AI isn’t replacing student writing – but it is reshaping it
AFT to Launch National Academy for AI Instruction with Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and United Federation of Teachers
Also referenced:
Tressie McMillan Cottom on "predatory inclusion"
Daniel Greene's "The Access Doctrine"
The Group Chats that Changed America
Fresh AI Hell:
Missouri AG investigating why chatbots don’t like Trump
Gig workers calling ICE on other undocumented gig workers
Tech billionaire Trump adviser Marc Andreessen says universities will ‘pay the price’ for DEI
USF makes a PTSD detector...trained on children
People falling in love with Replika chatbots
Elon Musk thirsting over xAI anime construct
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Why "AI" Is a Con: Our Book Launch! (with Vauhini Vara), 2025.05.08
7 juli 2025 · 1 uur 17 min
It's finally here! The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want hit the shelves in May. In this special bonus episode, Alex and Emily speak to tech journalist Vauhini Vara at one of the book's online launch events, where they covered the misleading nature of the term "artificial intelligence," why the use of tools like ChatGPT will only ever cheapen human labor and enrich the already powerful, and how people can fight the narrative that these technologies are inevitable. Lees meer
Vauhini Vara is a technology reporter and writer. Her journalism has been honored by the Asian American Journalists Association, the International Center for Journalists, the McGraw Center for Business Journalism, and others. Her latest book is Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, a work of journalism and memoir about how big technology companies are exploiting human communication — and how we’re complicit in this.
References
Everyone is cheating their way through college (with ChatGPT)
The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World by Allison Pugh
Te Hiku Media
Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence by Dan McQuillan
Refusing Generative AI in Writing Studies
Pennsylvania's SEIU Local 668 wins a victory against AI
Elon Musk's xAI is polluting Black Memphis residents
Possible Futures: An Internet for Our Elders
Better Images of AI
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
"Like Magic Intelligence in the Cloud", 2025.05.26
20 juni 2025 · 1 uur
Because Sam Altman hates opening his laptop, OpenAI is merging with iPhone guy Jony Ive's design firm in the name of some mysterious new ChatGPT-enabled consumer products: Alex and Emily go full Mystery Science Theater and dissect the announcement video. Plus how tech billionaires like Sam Altman mythologize San Francisco while their money makes it less livable for everyone else. Lees meer
References:
Sam Altman and Jony Ive are merging (Video)
Emplacedness, real estate, and gentrification in San Francisco
Anthropic? More like anthropomorphic
Karen Hao on her new book "Empire of AI" in conversation with Alex and Emily
Fresh AI Hell:
Don't use ChatGPT to summon demons
AI prompts accidentally left in novels
"AI" tutors are teaching fentanyl recipes
xAI's data center polluting Memphis with unpermitted methane generators
Gemini's on Bluesky - block it
Family uses "AI" generated avatar to give victim impact statement
The market for "AI friends"? Lonely losers
No, LGBTESCREAL isn't a thing
*****
You can check out future streams at on Twitch, and send us any AI Hell you see for future episodes.
Our book, The AI Con, is out! Get your copy now.
Follow Emily: Bluesky/Mastodon
Follow Alex: Bluesky/MastodonMusic: Toby Menon.
Production: Christie Taylor.
Graphic Design: Naomi Pleasure-Park.Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
Follow us!
Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
The "AI"-Enabled Immigration Panopticon (with Petra Molnar), 2025.05.05
28 mei 2025 · 1 uur 2 min
This week, Alex and Emily talk with anthropologist and immigration lawyer Petra Molnar about the dehumanizing hype of border-enforcement tech. From hoovering up data to hunt anyone of ambiguous citizenship status, to running surveillance of physical borders themselves, "AI" tech is everywhere in the enforcement of national borders. And as companies ranging from Amazon, to NSO Group, to Palantir all profit, this widening of automation threatens a future of faceless human rights violations with no attempts at accountability of any kind. Lees meer
Petra Molnar is associate director of York University's Refugee Law Lab, and a faculty associate for the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. She's also the author of the book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving immigration in the age of artificial intelligence.
References:
Department of Homeland Security: Robot Dogs Take Another Step Towards Deployment at the Border
Leaked: Palantir’s Plan to Help ICE Deport People
Athens prepares to host DEFEA 2025, a major hub for international defence cooperation
Fresh AI Hell:
Meta served teen girls beauty product ads whenever they deleted selfies
Dating app/luxury surveillance leaks personal info
"AI" for subway crime prediction
CA used "AI" to make bar exam questions
CA using "AI" tool to bypass building permit process
Wildly unethical "AI persuasion" research on Reddit users
AI makeup to retouch Holocaust images
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
AGI: "Imminent", "Inevitable", and Inane, 2025.04.21
14 mei 2025 · 1 uur 5 min
Emily and Alex pore through an elaborate science fiction scenario about the "inevitability" of Artificial General Intelligence or AGI by the year 2027 - which rests atop a foundation of TESCREAL nonsense, and Sinophobia to boot. Lees meer
References:
AI 2027
Fresh AI Hell:
AI persona bots for undercover cops
Palantir heart eyes Keir Starmer
Anti-vaxxers are grifting off the measles outbreak with AI-formulated supplements
The cost, environmental and otherwise, of being polite to ChatGPT
Actors who sold voice & likeness find it used for scams
Addictive tendencies and ChatGPT (satire)
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
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Emily
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Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
AI Hell in a Handbasket, 2025.04.14
30 april 2025 · 1 uur
It's been 4 months since we've cleared the backlog of Fresh AI Hell and the bullshit is coming in almost too fast to keep up with. But between a page full of awkward unicorns and a seeming slowdown in data center demand, Alex and Emily have more good news than usual to accompany this round of catharsis. Lees meer
AI Hell:
LLM processing like human language processing (not)
Jack Clark predicting AGI
Sebastian Bubeck says predictions in "sparks" paper have already come true
WIRED puff piece on the Amodeis
Foundation agents & leaning in to the computational metaphor (Fig 1, p14)
Chaser: Trying to recreate the GPT unicorn
The WSJ has an AI bot for all your tax questions
ChatGPT libel
AOL.com uses autogenerated captions about attempted murder
AI coding tools fix bugs by adding bugs
"We teach AGI to think, so you don't have to"
(from: Turing.com)
MAGA/DOGE paints teachers as glorified babysitters in push for AI
Chaser: How we are NOT using AI in the classroom
AI benchmarks are self-promoting trash — but regulators keep using them
DOGE is pushing AI tool created as "sandbox" for federal testing
"Psychological profiling" based on social media
The tariffs and ChatGPT
"I was not informed that Microsoft would sell my work to the Israeli military and government"
Microsoft fires engineers who protested Israeli military use of its tools
Pulling back on data centers, Microsoft edition
Abandoned data centers, China edition
Bill Gates: 2 day workweek coming thanks to AI...replacing doctors and teachers??
Chaser: Tesla glue fail schadenfreude
Chaser: Let's talk about the genie trope
Chaser: We finally met!!!
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
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Emily
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Twitter…
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"AI" Agents, A Single Point of Failure (with Margaret Mitchell), 2025.03.31
17 april 2025 · 1 uur 3 min
After "AI" stopped meaning anything, the hype salesmen moved on to "AI" "agents", those allegedly indefatigable assistants, allegedly capable of operating your software for you -- whether you need to make a restaurant reservation, book a flight, or book a flight to a restaurant reservation. Hugging Face's Margaret Mitchell joins Emily and Alex to help break down what agents actually are, and what to actually worry about. Lees meer
References:
PwC launches AI agent operating system to revolutionize AI workflows for enterprises
An Open-Source AI Agent for Doing Tasks on the Web
Scale AI announces multimillion-dollar defense deal, a major step in U.S. military automationOther references:
Why handing over total control to AI agents would be a huge mistake
Fully Autonomous AI Agents Should Not be Developed
Bender vs. Bubeck: The Great Chatbot Debate: Do LLMs Really Understand?
Democratize art
Fresh AI Hell:
DOGE suggests replacing workers with "AI" (of course)
Vape, or the tamagotchi gets it
Via @maaikeverbruggen
"AI" for psychotherapy, still bad, still hyped
Biology (not) of LLMs
Mark Cuban's grifty chatbot
Via @Hypervisible
Palate cleanser: "AI is the letdown"
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/27/tech/apple-ai-artificial-intelligence/index.htmlComic relief: "Fortified with AI"
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Linguists Versus 'AI' Speech Analysis (with Nicole Holliday), 2025.03.17
2 april 2025 · 1 uur
Measuring your talk time? Counting your filler words? What about "analyzing" your "emotions"? Companies that push LLM technology to surveil and summarize video meetings are increasingly offering to (purportedly) analyze your participation and assign your speech some metrics, all in the name of "productivity". Sociolinguist Nicole Holliday joins Alex and Emily to take apart claims about these "AI" meeting feedback tools, and reveal them to be just sparkling bossware, with little insight into how we talk. Lees meer
Nicole Holliday is Acting Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of California-Berkeley.
Quick note: Our guest for this episode had some sound equipment issues, which unfortunately affected her audio quality.
Main course:
Read AI Review: This AI Reads Emotions During Video Calls
Marketing video for Read AI
Zoom rebrands existing and introduces new generative AI features
Marketing video for Zoom Revenue Accelerator
Speech analysis startup releases AI tool that simulates difficult job interview conversation
Fresh AI Hell:
Amazon Echo will send all recordings to Amazon beginning March 28
Trump’s NIST no longer concerned with “safety” or “fairness”
Reporter Kevin Roose is feeling the bullshit
UW’s eScience institute pushing “AI” for information access
OpenAI whines about data being too expensive, with a side of Sinophobia
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
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Emily
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Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
The Anti-Bookclub Tackles 'Superagency', 2025.03.03
19 maart 2025 · 1 uur
Emily and Alex read a terrible book so you don't have to! Come for a quick overview of LinkedIn co-founder and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman's opus of magical thinking, 'Superagency: What could possibly go right with our AI future' -- stay for the ridicule as praxis. Plus, why even this tortuous read offers a bit of comfort about the desperate state of the AI boosters. Lees meer
References:
The cursèd book itself
AI and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Benchmark
Militants and Citizens: The Politics of Participatory Democracy in Porto Alegre
Fresh AI Hell:
Parents rationalizing exposing kids to AI
Underage, sexualized celebrity bots
Bossware a bad look, actually
CalState faculty union opposes AI initiative
The kids are alright
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
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Emily
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Alex
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Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
The War on Knowledge (with Raina Bloom), 2025.02.24
5 maart 2025 · 1 uur
In the weeks since January 20, the US information ecosystem has been unraveling fast. (We're looking at you Denali, Gulf of Mexico, and every holiday celebrating people of color and queer people that used to be on Google Calendar.) As the country's unelected South African tech billionaire continues to run previously secure government data through highly questionable LLMs, academic librarian Raina Bloom joins Emily and Alex for a talk about how we organize knowledge, and what happens when generative AI degrades or poison the systems that keep us all accurately -- and contextually -- informed. Lees meer
Raina Bloom is the Reference Services Coordinator for University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries.
References:
OpenAI tries to 'uncensor' ChatGPT
Elon Musk's DOGE is feeding sensitive federal data into AI to target cuts
Guardian Media Group announces strategic partnership with OpenAI
Elon Musk's AI-fuelled war on human agency
Archive version
(Post now deleted) A DOGE intern asks Reddit for help with file conversion
When is it safe to use ChatGPT in higher education? Raina recommends the table on page 6 of UNESCO's QuickStart guide.
Fresh AI Hell:
Irish educational body, while acknowledging genAI's problems, still gives LLMs too much credit
From haircuts to dress design, AI slop is creating unrealistic expectations that hurt small businesses
Attorneys still falling for "AI" search
The latest in uncanny valley body horror robotics
Google claims to have developed AI "co-scientist"
Is AI 'reasoning' or 'pretending'? It's a false choice.
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
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Emily
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Alex
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Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Produc… -
Petro-Masculinity Versus the Planet (with Tamara Kneese), 2025.01.27
19 februari 2025 · 47 min
Sam Altman thinks fusion - particularly a company he's personally invested in - can provide the energy we "need" to develop AGI. Meanwhile, what if we just...put data centers on the Moon to save energy? Alex, Emily, and guest Tamara Kneese pour cold water on Silicon Valley's various unhinged, technosolutionist ideas about energy and the environment. Lees meer
Dr. Tamara Kneese is director of climate, technology and justice at the Data & Society Research Institute
Due to some technical issues during our recording, this week's episode is a bit shorter than usual.
References:
A data center … on the moon??
Sam Altman is banking on fusion
Greenland is the new Mars
“Regenerative finance” in the crypto era
Fears of subprime carbon assets stall crypto mission to save rainforest
Corporate carbon offset company accidentally starts devastating wildfire
The AI/crypto crossoverAI/crypto crossover no one asked for
Blockchains wanted to build a smart city. The state could not sign off on its water rights
On petro-masculinity
Predatory delay and other myths of sustainable AI
Book: Digital Energetics, on Bitcoin/AI computing as a larger energy problem
Fresh AI Hell:
Fake books about indigenous languages
Surveillance company harrasses own employees with cameras
Schools SWATing kids based on AI outputs
LeCun says libraries etc owe him their data
AGI is when OpenAI makes $100 billion in profits
Graphic T for the "AI" age
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
The UK's Misplaced Enthusiasm (with Gina Neff), 2025.01.20
5 februari 2025 · 1 uur 2 min
In January, the United Kingdom's new Labour Party prime minister, Keir Starmer, announced a new initiative to go all in on AI in the hopes of big economic returns, with a promise to “mainline” it into the country’s veins: everything from offering public data to private companies, to potentially fast-tracking miniature nuclear power plants to supply energy to data centers. UK-based researcher Gina Neff helps explain why this flashy policy proposal is mostly a blank check for big tech, and has little to offer either the economy or working people. Lees meer
Gina Neff is executive director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge, and a professor of responsible AI at Queen Mary University of London.
References:
The AI Opportunities Action Plan
‘Mainlined into UK’s veins’: Labour announces huge public rollout of AI
Gina Neff: Can democracy survive AI?
Labour's AI Action Plan - a gift to the far right
Fresh AI Hell:
"AI" tool for predicting how Parliament will react to policy proposals
"AI" detects age based on hand movements
Apple Intelligence misleading summaries of news
Book simplification as a service
CEO doesn't understand why kid turned AI features of toy off
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
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Emily
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Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Sam Altman's Fever Dream, 2025.01.13
22 januari 2025 · 1 uur 2 min
Not only is OpenAI's new o3 model allegedly breaking records for how close an LLM can get to the mythical "human-like thinking" of AGI, but Sam Altman has some, uh, reflections for us as he marks two years since the official launch of ChatGPT. Emily and Alex kick off the new year unraveling these truly fantastical stories. Lees meer
References:
OpenAI o3 Breakthrough High Score on ARC-AGI-Pub
From the blog of Sam Altman: Reflections
More about the ARC Prize
o3's environmental impact
The brain is a computer is a brain
Fresh AI Hell:
"Time to Edit" as a metric predicting the singularity (Contributed by Warai Otoko)
AI 'tasting' colors
An AI...faucet??
Seattle Public Schools calls ChatGPT a "transformative technology"
A GitHub pull request closed because change would have been unfriendly to "AI" chat interface
Cohere working with Palantir
Elsevier rewrites papers with "AI" without telling authors, editors
The UK: mainlining AI straight into their veins
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Episode 47: Hell is Other People's AI Hype, December 9 2024
30 december 2024 · 1 uur 1 min
It’s been a long year in the AI hype mines. And no matter how many claims Emily and Alex debunk, there's always a backlog of Fresh AI Hell. This week, another whirlwind attempt to clear it, with plenty of palate cleansers along the way. Lees meer
Fresh AI Hell:
Part I: Education
Medical residency assignments
"AI generated" UCLA course
"Could ChatGPT get an engineering degree?"
AI letters of recommendation
Chaser: 'AI' isn't Tinkerbell and we don’t have to clapPart II: Potpourri, as in really rotten
AI x parenting
Et tu, Firefox?
US military tests AI machine gun
"Over-indexing" genAI failings
AI denying social benefits
Chaser: AI 'granny' vs scammersPart III: The Endangered Information Ecosystem
Fake Emily quote in LLM-written article
Protecting Wikipedia
AI: the new plastic
Google AI on 'dressing'
"AI" archaeology
Misinfo scholar used ChatGPT
OpenAI erases lawsuit evidence
LAT "AI" bias meter
WaPo AI search: The Washington Post burns its own archiveChaser: ShotSpotter as art
Part IV: Surveillance, AI in science/medicine
Apple patents "body data"
Chatbots "defeat" doctors
Algorithm for healthcare "overuse"
"AI friendships"
"Can LLMs Generate Novel Research Ideas?"
Another LLM for science
Chaser: FTC vs VenntelPart V: They tell us to believe the hype
Thomas Friedman: AGI is coming
Matteo Wong on o1's 'reasoning'
WIRED editor: believe the hype
Salesforce CEO: The "unlimited age"Chaser: Emily and Alex's forthcoming book! Pre-order THE AI CON: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want at TheCon.AI.
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
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Emily
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Alex
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Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Go… -
Episode 46: AGI Funny Business (Model), with Brian Merchant, December 2 2024
18 december 2024 · 1 uur 3 min
Once upon a time, artificial general intelligence was the only business plan OpenAI seemed to have. Tech journalist Brian Merchant joins Emily and Alex for a time warp to the beginning of the current wave of AI hype, nearly a decade ago. And it sure seemed like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and company were luring investor dollars to their newly-formed venture solely on the hand-wavy promise that someday, LLMs themselves would figure out how to turn a profit. Lees meer
Brian Merchant is an author, journalist in residence at the AI Now Institute, and co-host of the tech news podcast System Crash.
References:
Elon Musk and partners form nonprofit to stop AI from ruining the world
How Elon Musk and Y Combinator Plan to Stop Computers From Taking Over
Elon Musk's Billion-Dollar AI Plan Is About Far More Than Saving the World
Brian’s recent report on the business model of AGI, for the AI Now Institute: AI Generated Business: The rise of AGI and the rush to find a working revenue model
Previously on MAIHT3K: Episode 21: The True Meaning of 'Open Source' (feat. Sarah West and Andreas Liesenfeld)
Fresh AI Hell:
OpenAI explores advertising as it steps up revenue drive
If an AI company ran Campbell's Soup with the same practices they use to handle data
Humans are the new 'luxury item'
Itching to write a book? AI publisher Spines wants to make a deal
A company pitched Emily her own 'verified avatar'
Don't upload your medical images to chatbots
A look at a pilot program in Georgia that uses 'jailbots' to track inmates
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
Subscribe to our newsletter via Buttondown.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Episode 45: Billionaires, Influencers, and Ed Tech (feat. Adrienne Williams), November 18 2024
26 november 2024 · 1 uur 1 min
From Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg, billionaires with no education expertise keep using their big names and big dollars to hype LLMs for classrooms. Promising ‘comprehensive AI tutors', or just ‘educator-informed’ tools to address understaffed classrooms, this hype is just another round of Silicon Valley pointing to real problems -- under-supported school systems -- but then directing attention and resources to their favorite toys. Former educator and DAIR research fellow Adrienne Williams joins to explain the problems this tech-solutionist redirection fails to solve, and the new ones it creates. Lees meer
Adrienne Williams started organizing in 2018 while working as a junior high teacher for a tech owned charter school. She expanded her organizing in 2020 after her work as an Amazon delivery driver, where many of the same issues she saw in charter schools were also in evidence. Adrienne is a Public Voices Fellow on Technology in the Public Interest with The OpEd Project in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, as well as a Research Fellow at both (DAIR) and Just Tech.
References:
Funding Helps Teachers Build AI Tools
Sal Khan's 2023 Ted Talk: AI in the classroom can transform education
Bill Gates: My trip to the frontier of AI education
Background: Cory Booker Hates Public Schools
Background: Cory Booker's track record on education
Book: Access is Capture: How Edtech Reproduces Racial Inequality
Book: Disruptive Fixation: School Reform and the Pitfalls of Techno-IdealismPreviously on MAIHT3K: Episode 26, Universities Anxiously Buy Into the Hype (feat. Chris Gilliard)
Episode 17: Back to School with AI Hype in Education (feat. Haley Lepp)Fresh AI Hell:
"Streamlining" teaching
Google, Microsoft and Perplexity are promoting scientific racism in 'AI overviews'
'Whisper' medical transcription tool used in hospitals is making things up
X's AI bot can't tell the difference between a bad game and vandalism
Prompting is not a substitute for probability measurem…
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Episode 44: OpenAI's Ridiculous 'Reasoning', October 28 2024
13 november 2024 · 1 uur
The company behind ChatGPT is back with bombastic claim that their new o1 model is capable of so-called "complex reasoning." Ever-faithful, Alex and Emily tear it apart. Plus the flaws in a tech publication's new 'AI hype index,' and some palette-cleansing new regulation against data-scraping worker surveillance. Lees meer
References:
OpenAI: Learning to reason with LLMs
How reasoning works
GPQA, a 'graduate-level' Q&A benchmark system
Fresh AI Hell:
MIT Technology Review's AI 'AI hype index'
CFPB Takes Action to Curb Unchecked Worker Surveillance
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
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Emily
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Alex
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Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Episode 43: AI Companies Gamble with Everyone's Planet (feat. Paris Marx), October 21 2024
31 oktober 2024 · 1 uur 1 min
Technology journalist Paris Marx joins Alex and Emily for a conversation about the environmental harms of the giant data centers and other water- and energy-hungry infrastructure at the heart of LLMs and other generative tools like ChatGPT -- and why the hand-wavy assurances of CEOs that 'AI will fix global warming' are just magical thinking, ignoring a genuine climate cost and imperiling the clean energy transition in the US. Lees meer
Paris Marx is a tech journalist and host of the podcast Tech Won’t Save Us. He also recently launched a 4-part series, Data Vampires, (which features Alex) about the promises and pitfalls of data centers like the ones AI boosters rely on.
References:
Eric Schmidt says AI more important than climate goals
Microsoft's sustainability report
Sam Altman's “The Intelligence Age” promises AI will fix the climate crisis
Previously on MAIHT3K: Episode 19: The Murky Climate and Environmental Impact of Large Language Models, November 6 2023
Fresh AI Hell:
Rosetta to linguists: "Embrace AI or risk extinction" of endangered languages
A talking collar that you can use to pretend to talk with your pets
Google offers synthetic podcasts through NotebookLM
An AI 'artist' claims he's losing millions of dolalrs from people stealing his work
University hiring English professor to teach...prompt engineering
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
Find our book The AI Con here, and MAIHT3k merch here.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Episode 42: Stop Trying to Make 'AI Scientist' Happen, September 30 2024
10 oktober 2024 · 1 uur
Can “AI” do your science for you? Should it be your co-author? Or, as one company asks, boldly and breathlessly, “Can we automate the entire process of research itself?” Lees meer
Major scientific journals have banned the use of tools like ChatGPT in the writing of research papers. But people keep trying to make “AI Scientists” a thing. Just ask your chatbot for some research questions, or have it synthesize some human subjects to save you time on surveys.
Alex and Emily explain why so-called “fully automated, open-ended scientific discovery” can’t live up to the grandiose promises of tech companies. Plus, an update on their forthcoming book!
References:
Sakana.AI keeps trying to make 'AI Scientist' happen
The AI Scientist: Towards Fully Automated Open-Ended Scientific Discovery
Can LLMs Generate Novel Research Ideas? A Large-Scale Human Study with 100+ NLP Researchers
How should the advent of large language models affect the practice of science?
Relevant research ethics policies:
ACL Policy on Publication Ethics
Committee On Public Ethics (COPE)
The Vancouver Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work
Fresh AI Hell:
Should journals allow LLMs as co-authors?
Business Insider "asks ChatGPT"
Otter.ai sends transcript of private after-meeting discussion to everyone
"Could AI End Grief?"
AI generated crime scene footage
"The first college of nursing to offer an MSN in AI"
FTC cracks down on "AI" claims
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
Twitter: @alexhanna
Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman. -
Episode 41: Sweating into AI Fall, September 9 2024
26 september 2024 · 1 uur 1 min
Did your summer feel like an unending barrage of terrible ideas for how to use “AI”? You’re not alone. It's time for Emily and Alex to clear out the poison, purge some backlog, and take another journey through AI hell -- from surveillance of emotions, to continued hype in education and art. Lees meer
Fresh AI Hell:
Synthetic data for Hollywood test screenings
NaNoWriMo's AI fail
AI is built on exploitation
NaNoWriMo sponsored by an AI writing company
NaNoWriMo's AI writing sponsor creates bad writing
AI assistant rickrolls customers
Programming LLMs with "fiduciary duty"
Canva increasing prices thank to "AI" features
Ad spending by AI companies
Clearview AI hit with largest GDPR fine yet
'AI detection' in schools harms neurodivergent kids
CS prof admits unethical ChatGPT use
College recruiter chatbot can't discuss politics
"The AI-powered nonprofits reimagining education"
Teaching AI at art schools
Professors' 'AI twins' as teaching assistants
A teacherless AI classroom
Another 'AI scientist'
LLMs still biased against African American English
AI "enhances" photo of Black people into white-appearing
Eric Schmidt: Go ahead, steal data with ChatGPT
The environmental cost of Google's "AI Overviews"
Jeff Bezos' "Grand Challenge" for AI in environment
What I found in an AI-company's e-waste
xAI accused of worsening smog with unauthorized gas turbines
Smile surveillance of workers
AI for "emotion recognition" of rail passengers
Chatbot harassment scenario reveals real victim
AI has hampered productivity
"AI" in a product description turns off consumers
Is tripe kosher? It depends on the religion of the cow.
Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.
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Emily
Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender
Alex
Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
Mastodon: dair-community.social…